Latin America

Crater Santiago

Antarctica 101

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Antarctica is our early-warning system. The coldest, driest, windiest place on the planet is where we can most tangibly track and understand how global climate is changing. The Antarctic Peninsula, a curving chain of mountains that extend south of the Andes, is just about the fastest-warming place on Earth, seeing temperature rises of up to 3C over the last fifty-odd years.

When community tourism gets scary

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David Whitley gets a surprise when visiting a cave in Guatemala

Community tourism sounds so fluffy and harmless. We’d go on a boat, visit the Q’eqchi Mayans that live amongst the mangroves and go for a little walk through the forest to see a cave. A pleasant way to spend a few hours, that was the idea.

Islands in the extremes

Petropolis

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Grand 19th century mansions and a gothic cathedral were not the first images I had conjured up when I thought of Brazil. As I enter Petropolis, barely 50km from the beaches of Rio, I could have been forgiven for thinking I’d been transported to Europe and dropped into an Alpine town.